Find me on Twitter

Find me on Instagram

CreditDonkey’s Best Dad Blogs 2017: Top Parenting Experts

Official Daddy Blogger, “The Dadabase,” from May 2011 to June 2014

Search Box

Search for:

Amazon Associates Disclosure

Family Friendly Daddy Blog is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

So in an order to help Santa out, I checked out Target. I’d already found a cheap, tiny made-in-China type of thing at a party store earlier that day; the kind you’d find in the bottom of a box of Rice Krispies.

But it was at Target that I found the perfect pinball machine for him:

A Ninja Turtles pinball machine, on sale for about $22 (from $25); which is more money than my wife and I agreed to spend to help Santa out on this.

My wife and I are strict Dave Ramsey followers. Therefore, every dollar is specifically accounted for. But in addition to our shared income budget, she and I also each have an annual stipend consisting of birthday and Christmas money from family to last us all year.

I texted my wife: “I am tempted just to spend my own money to buy this for him!”

It was the perfect opportunity for an impulse buy. He would be so happy and so surprised on Christmas morning to unwrap that!

But I thought about the gifts we had already bought him, and considered the other mysterious gifts he’ll get from others, and decided against buying the pinball machine.

If he really is disappointed with the “cereal prize pinball machine” he’s getting, he can spend his own money on the Ninja Turtle one at Target; though he probably won’t. He’ll probably spend it on Legos instead.

So I did it: I resisted the urge to make an impulse purchase. I’m almost surprised at myself.

I will close with an infographic that explains the psychology behind an impulse buy: